Jean Terrasson, the double intellectual life of an academician

The biographers of Terrasson paint the portrait of a man with the sincerity, soundness of mind, and naivety of the sages of the ancient world, but not endowed with their genius. Doubts about his piety arose very early on among his superiors at the Oratoire, and later through testimonies concerning his death “as a philosopher.” The attribution of the Traité de l’infini créé therefore appears to be a way of diverting attention from his opinions and sexual conduct, which are far more scandalous than his ideas on the infinite.